The way people are coping with the current hellscape that is 2026 is interesting to me. Somehow, it always seems to be internalization. Like, if only I can lock in using this distraction free method, if only I start buying more physical media, if only I use a dumb phone and an mp3 player for my music, etc. etc., somehow that will resolve the intractable shitstorm happening right now. And none of that is even going to be a drop in the ocean in terms of making your life better. Only collective action has the potential to do that at this stage.
Nothing opposes a setup like this to collective action. Given that most of modern technology or at least most of the internet is built to actively distract you as much as possible to extract profit, it's just a sane choice to disconnect from this every now and again if you want to work on things that actually matter. And this can totally include things that are for the collective good, and in collective efforts.
It just seems like copium to me. The consolation prize is we get to come up with niche lifestyle preferences to cut out the distractions. We can fine tune our lives to increase productivity. More and more optimization until we're just machines. And then people will use that as a way to feel superior to the sheep who continue to scroll tiktok.
This is a pretty hyperbolic description of someone customizing an old laptop to work the way she wants it to work.
Not really. I only watch movies on my TV, play game on my PS4, and read novels on my Kobo. It’s not about productivity. Having a device tied to an activity is nice for attention and mental load.
You sound defensive.
It's a pretty common technique to maintain healthy boundaries, similar to how most employees don't use their private computer for work nor vice versa.
WTF is this comment suppose to mean? You're telling me a union organizer working to better the material lives of their community is "coping" by distracting themselves from corporate social media?
Some people merely have the urge to create -- For those people, it has little to do with coping. They would like a distraction free environment regardless.
I'm certainly one of those people :)
It's very meditative to solely focus on the one thing in front of you.
I bought an iPod again this year, and started buying MP3s instead of streaming songs.
It's so nice to sit in a chair, close my eyes, and listen to a soundtrack or an old album.
I'm getting old.
There's just more to understand about the music now.
I've enjoyed the in-between of buying music on bandcamp.
Me, seeing someone eating ice cream: “Here is one of several copies of The Permanent Revolution that I keep on my person for this exact situation”
It's not ice cream though. Quite the opposite. It's this notion that puritanical self discipline at the individual level will somehow get us out of this. It won't.
Effective collective action is impossible without both real self discipline and meaningful engagement in life.
Your point has value to the extent that it’s reminding people we can’t just retreat into personal satisfactions.
But to the extent that it pooh poohs self-discipline or joyfully engaged attention, it’s totally wrong. The necessary practice starts with these things and then grows social and organized.
The social and organizing phase is usually less scoldy and pugilistic than some of your commentary here, too.
OP mentioned owning more than one computer in the post. They could spend all of their time watching vtubers stream gacha games when they’re not writing for all we know
That's a total non sequitur.
Seems a little more non sequitur to try to shoehorn “check out this neat thing I did with an old laptop” into the April Theses though
If it’s something like chocolate brownie truffle ice cream, that’s clearly a bourgeois citizen who needs their consciousness raised.
> Only collective action has the potential to do that at this stage.
Nothing resolves the shit storm, but it is absolutely possible to not be in it. Don't need collective action for that.
Sounds like reflexive impotence. It’s difficult to respect people who say things like this.
You don't need to solve whats going on around you, just whatever works for you. The fact your chose the word "coping" says more about your mindset than those you're generalizing about.
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You've used this reply twice now.
Now it's your turn, comrade. Share your effective revolutionary strategy in more detail than "collective action." I've posted about mine here and there on this forum, it's a perfectly valid place for it.
> Only collective action has the potential to do that at this stage.
Yes in terms of surviving the full shit storm, and yes in terms of deriving security and comfort from community, but the things you mentioned are all valid steps on a path to joining the community of people working together on the issue you're trying to solo cope with.
Example: lately those paying attention here in Taiwan are getting the sense that our internet is fragile, and start looking into solutions for that. Many end up at reticulum and meshtastic. They might fiddle a bit, maybe get a Lora radio or whatever, but regardless, this weekend is g0v summit, where there's a lot of talks and a booth about this exact thing, and yesterday a lot of the people I met attending the talks or visiting the booth are brand new to this. But now they're in the scene, plugged in with people that have been spending years tying solar Lora radios to the top of trees throughout the city.
Getting into offline music, you get to the stage where you start trying to find good quality music, and stumble into the soulseek community, or you start wondering more about modding your dumb secondhand hardware, stumble into the mod community. From either of those into the FOSS/open hardware scene, anti-IP scenes, "four thieves vinegar collective" types.
Basically, there's many paths.
> And none of that is even going to be a drop in the ocean in terms of making your life better.
I disagree 100%. Collective action isn't ever going to persuade Apple or Google to correct course. Collective action has already failed to compel Microsoft for 30+ years. These companies picked their side and your bargaining has zero leverage if you continue to purchase their products and suffer their indignation.
You can only improve your life by getting rid of disrespectful advertising and low-quality slopware. The victim mindset is a lazy lie, one that you tell yourself to justify a net negative lifestyle.
The victim mindset? What about my initial statement implies that I perceive myself or others as victims? Sounds like projection.
"You sound defensive"
> What about my initial statement implies that I perceive myself or others as victims?
And your copium is posting to HN explaining to everyone how they are Doing It Wrong.
Maybe. Doesn't mean I'm wrong.
I agree. Collective action can come in two shapes.
One is that enough individuals take action, and the things you list are that, an individual taking action. If enough individuals do it then goal accomplished.
The other is making our politicians force other individuals to do it.
IMO both are necessary. There's some things where decades have proven that individuals are too "weak" to resist the pull of their urges (and nevermind those urges have trillions of dollars of R&D to make them as strong as possible so it's an unfair battle).
No one is trying to solve the shitstorm for everyone, they’re trying to escape it for themselves. No one can do anything about the uninformed masses addicted to the tech world that was previously propped up as great because so much money was moving around the space.
A lot of the complaining in the comments that “this doesnt solve anything for the masses” or “its too complex for the problem space” are totally missing the point. It’s not about you or the greater society. Greater society has chosen the slippery slope race to the bottom and can’t be saved because they can’t be bothered with taking on a little extra complexity or doing things to help themselves.
Non-hotswappable life improvements/tech that don’t make life faster/more efficient?! Oh the humanity!
A collective action will only improve things for the least common denominator of the collective…which isn’t that helpful to the individual who is already unable to change things for the collective. It was the collective that helped create the shitstorm why work with them?
I consider it a good first step.
Of course people reach for individualized solutions first: We (Americans at least) live in a very individualized society.
But these individualized solutions still represent a shift in mindset, of people believing they have agency around how they use technological tools, and of people believing they should make those choices and not a company or the government. This seems very basic and self-evident to anyone who spends time on HN, but it is genuine progress for a lot of people.
Less than 1% of the population is going to do anything remotely close to any of these things. It's just a niche lifestyle preference.
Less than 1% of the population is going to engage in the kind of collective action you want them to.